The Electronic Spanish Prisoner: Romance Frauds on the Internet
Abstract
This article considers the issue of romance frauds, a form of behaviour that has recently gathered significant public attention. A romance fraud operates by persuading a person to believe they are in a legitimate romance and then using that romance to extract money, gifts or other financial rewards from them. The emotional consequences of romance fraud can be significant, with victims often experiencing feelings akin to grief. This paper considers whether such behaviour should be considered a financial crime or whether the behaviour inherent within it means that it should be considered an offence against the person.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
While some online romance scams last only a few days, most span several months, and some continue for years, in extreme cases up to 8 years.
“While some scams last only a few days (Gillespie, 2017; Wang & Zhou, 2023), most span several months (Rege, 2009; Whitty, 2013), and some continue for years (Huhn, 2023)—in extreme cases, up to 8 years (Aborisade et al., 2024).”
From Love as Bait: A Scoping Review and Crime Script Analysis of Online Romance Scams (2026) · cites this paper as Gillespie, 2017
In rare cases, a scammer uses their own image, but typically a fake profile is created.
“In rare cases, a scammer uses their own image (1.5a; Gillespie, 2017; Wang & Lu, 2007), but typically, a fake profile (1.5b) is created (e.g., Rege, 2013).”
From Love as Bait: A Scoping Review and Crime Script Analysis of Online Romance Scams (2026) · cites this paper as Gillespie, 2017
Grooming includes planning physical meetings.
“planning physical meetings (5h; Aborisade et al, 2024; Gillespie, 2017);”
From Love as Bait: A Scoping Review and Crime Script Analysis of Online Romance Scams (2026) · cites this paper as Gillespie, 2017
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Lazarus, S., Whittaker, J. M., McGuire, M. R., & Platt, L. (2023) · Journal of Economic Criminology · doi:10.1016/j.jeconc.2023.100013 · Cited by 97 · see citing works
Tainted Love: a Systematic Literature Review of Online Romance Scam Research
Bilz, A., Shepherd, L. A., & Johnson, G. I. (2023) · Interacting with Computers · doi:10.1093/iwc/iwad048 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Love as Bait: A Scoping Review and Crime Script Analysis of Online Romance Scams
Schokkenbroek, J. M., & Snaphaan, T. (2026) · Trauma, Violence, & Abuse · doi:10.1177/15248380251361046 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
The charade of discreetness: Exploring the paradoxical lifestyles of romance fraudsters
Barnor, J. (2024) · Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling · doi:10.1002/jip.1637 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Romance Fraud: Its Repercussions on Victims’ Wellbeing
Gauci, C., & Vella, M. G. (2025) · Women & Criminal Justice · doi:10.1080/08974454.2025.2600304 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
- Authors
- Gillespie, A. A.
- Affiliations
- Law School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
- Venue
- The Journal of Criminal Law
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2017-06
- Volume
- 81
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 217-231
- ISSN
- 0022-0183 (ISSN-L)
- 1740-5580
- OpenAlex
- W2596492779
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 6 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 1.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Journal of Criminal Law (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Law and Policy
- Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
- Keywords
- romance fraud, financial crime, crimes against persons, grief, fraud
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
